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The Department of State to the British Embassy 28
Aide-Mémoire
The Department refers to the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of February 10 on the subject of the China Consortium.
It is the understanding of the American Government that the managing committee of the American Group in the China Consortium informed the British Group some time ago that it would refrain until further notice from expressing on the part of the American Group intention of withdrawal from the Consortium, and that, at the same time, the said committee explained in detail its reasoning in support of a suggestion made by it that certain administrative readjustments be made in the financial mechanism prevailing between and among the member Groups.
In the opinion of the American Government, there should be no need for discussion at this moment of a possible dissolution of the Consortium, and, in the light of the facts as understood by the Department, it would seem that further consideration of this question should be deferred.
- Notation by the Adviser on Political Relations: “Read to and indorsed by Mr. Thomas W. Lamont. SKH II–14–’39.”↩